[Fish Sandwich]

Stacaesar. Stacaesar. So this is basically a show made by geniuses, yeah?

At the very least, they sure know how to keep me entertained. So, when I say I knew what this one would be about going in, it then shouldn't be surprising to hear I was looking forward to it. Everything about Stacey is pretty much exactly what I want out of a toku show, and everything about Stacaesar is more than I could've ever hoped for from Zenkaiger. A cool dark mirror counterpart to the protagonist? What if he has some intriguing backstory and motivations shrouded in mystery? What if he has a complex relationship to the other villains to further the drama? What if they do that thing where the hero and the villain get to meet each other before they realize they're enemies and build a fun interpersonal dynamic? What if we get some sick rival fight action in there?

Hey, what if we got all of this in one episode, and then this dude was also a gloriously retro Battle Japan homage who summons mint-in-box giant robots to do his bidding?

They knocked this introduction out of the park. I'm almost as excited to be talking about this guy for episodes to come as I am Magine, and that's really saying something if you've seen how embarrassingly passionate I am about Magine! I've got no clue how far the show intends to take Stacey, or in what directions, but he's quickly made himself a welcome addition to the show's dynamic with a ton of potential.

Yet somehow, evidently not content with an episode that already had this much going for it, there's also an entire Gaon-centric plot in here providing some great character development. As I've mentioned, Gaon turned out to be a very different character from what I was expecting going in. He's maybe my least favorite of the group, but I also believe him to be the member that is perhaps most emblematic of Zenkaiger's unique goals as a Sentai series, because his flaws as an individual are the most glaring.

Like, you know, he's a jerk, right? There's kinda no getting around that. He fluctuates between somewhat patronizing affection and deeply hypocritical loathing with almost no middle ground, and that's hardly the personality of any great hero. But then, this is a show about heroes who are terrible choices to be heroes, so I also look at all this as something that's working as intended. It's the kind of thematic core that naturally leads to interesting character growth, and I thought this episode was a nice step towards that for Gaon. Just a little one – just a start – but, especially considering it's but one part of a packed episode, I think they did a nice job here refocusing his character a bit. You see a more earnest side to him than usual, and I honestly really like the implication that he wasn't worried about the others getting hurt because he figures Kikainoids are tough enough to be fine without his help. Again, there are a ton of things wrong with his whole train of thought, but what this episode does well is make it apparent there's an honest desire to protect something in there. His misguided hesitation to fight is a glimmer of genuine kindness under his superficial surface. Gaon came out of this episode feeling more layered as a character than he was going in, and that was enough for me at the moment.

It's almost more of a bonus than anything with how packed this episode is with great fanservice, delivered in a way I'd imagine is still perfectly digestible for less hardcore fans, which is something I place a ton of value on. You don't need to know who all those robots are for it to be exciting that the episode ends with ALL those robots showing up. I think the simple fact that I want to talk about Gaon at all with stuff like that in here too is the biggest testament to how strong I found this episode there could be.